We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum. This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are - or become - political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.

MSE News: First Direct tops our banking poll again, while Barclays takes the wooden s

2

Comments

  • Archi_Bald
    Archi_Bald Posts: 9,681 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Report a lost card
    Dispute unauthorised transaction
    Change of address
    Close Accounts

    I highly doubt many banks would let you do all of the above through internet banking.
    • How often do you lose your card?
    • How often do you have unauthorised transactions you want to dispute?
    • How often do you change your address?
    • How often do you close your accounts? Which ones?
  • No_6
    No_6 Posts: 835 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Never lost a card.
    Probably only had 2 transactions added, to dispute with NW in all
    my 48 years of banking with them, which they quickly sorted.
    Have been at my address for 38 years, so haven't had to phone for any changes recently :)
    Don't close accounts, only CC cards or do a switch, which will close a spare account.


    6
  • Herbalus
    Herbalus Posts: 2,634 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Archi_Bald wrote: »
    • How often do you lose your card?
    • How often do you have unauthorised transactions you want to dispute?
    • How often do you change your address?
    • How often do you close your accounts? Which ones?

    Point well made. But those are just some examples.

    People don't need to talk to their banks all the time, but they still want to have good service on hand for when they do. If you ever do have an issue with something, it's an awful lot better knowing there's a sensible person who can help resolve it than feeling a sense of dread at the amount of incompetence and fury you're going to unleash with a poorly-trained workforce.

    You could argue you don't need to talk to energy companies either, but the inability of Extra Energy to send me a bill is incomprehensible. And seeing as they don't send one when I call them and request one (still waiting after 8 weeks and 3 requests), there's no point in requesting one.

    So I'd much rather consider the customer service that I probably won't need, than ignore it.
  • ondine
    ondine Posts: 22 Forumite
    I must be one of the few people happy with their Barclays experience :-)

    I opened the account in 2011 and can't fault their customer service at all - whether it's in branch or on phone they've always been very helpful. Their banking app and website are very good.

    I used to pay them £6.5 per month to get mobile phone insurance, tablet insurance, and a decent fee-free overdraft. This year they've introduced the Blue Rewards thing though, so I pay the £3 Blue rewards acct fee, plus the £6.50 Barclays account fee, and they pay me back £10 in rewards (as I kept my home insurance with them). So for a grand total of £0.50 per month I get both my mobile devices insured and can access the £300 overdraft at no cost, not bad at all...
  • benjus
    benjus Posts: 5,433 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    Report a lost card
    Dispute unauthorised transaction
    Change of address
    Close Accounts

    I highly doubt many banks would let you do all of the above through internet banking.

    Change of address can be done online in many cases.

    Closing accounts usually requires a letter, I believe. In the case of Nationwide (the last account I closed) they had an online form to print out, sign and post.

    Reporting a lost card can be done online in some cases, but I would normally do it by phone due to the urgency. However it's a routine operation and I've never found a bank that's managed to mess this up.

    Disputing transactions is probably the only item from the list that really benefits from decent telephone customer service. Even then it can always be done by letter.
    Let's settle this like gentlemen: armed with heavy sticks
    On a rotating plate, with spikes like Flash Gordon
    And you're Peter Duncan; I gave you fair warning
  • benjus
    benjus Posts: 5,433 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    I switched from First Direct to Barclays earlier this year (well, I still have the FD account but it's essentially dormant now).

    I was always happy with FD's customer service but hated their online and mobile banking (which is very important IMO as it's my primary contact with the bank). I was also swayed a little by the freebies that Barclays offers - e.g. on their no-monthly-fee Premier account you get a year's Picturehouse cinema membership, discounts at restaurants, free coffees/teas, free English Heritage membership.

    So far so good, and their mobile/online banking is far better than FD's. But I'll reserve final judgement until I've had to call customer service to deal with a tricky matter.
    Let's settle this like gentlemen: armed with heavy sticks
    On a rotating plate, with spikes like Flash Gordon
    And you're Peter Duncan; I gave you fair warning
  • pollypenny
    pollypenny Posts: 29,406 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    No_6 wrote: »
    Never banked with FD or hardly ever needed to phone call any of my bank accounts ??
    for WHAT !
    All done online with no problems for years.


    100% for my banks are
    Nat West... Halifax...Santander.... all get 100% for online banking / web pages, ease of use / etc


    1% for Tesco...2% for Sainsbury's ...still waiting to evaluate MS bank, only 6 months in.


    Why do peeps need to talk to their banks ?



    6



    I'll be phoning Nationwide later to ensure that a big payment for my new car goes through without problem.
    Member #14 of SKI-ers club

    Words, words, they're all we have to go by!.

    (Pity they are mangled by this autocorrect!)
  • No_6
    No_6 Posts: 835 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    But surely you should be with FD if you are relying on phone calls to a bank ?
    that is why they come out tops, in the polls !


    Looking back though my MS money data, we had Nation-W accounts a fair few years back,
    can't remember them being any better than Nat West. other wise we would still be using them.


    6
  • fozmcfc
    fozmcfc Posts: 3,098 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker PPI Party Pooper Debt-free and Proud!
    I've been with Natwest for over 25 years and I would rate them as ok, they pretty much do what First Direct do that Macrencephal said above.

    My money goes in, my bills, direct debits etc come out. I have very little interaction with the bank at branch level.

    My only real minus point for them, was when I had fraud on debit card, they dealt with it efficiently at first, but not thereafter.

    Plus points, the APP is very good and I like the emergency cash feature, where I can get money from certain cashpoints without my card.

    Maybe I've been lucky, but I'd wager that most of the poor responses are from customers, who cause their own problems, such as many who are unable to manage their money, but then blame the bank, cause they get documented charges on their accounts.
  • cmotd
    cmotd Posts: 18 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    edited 1 September 2015 at 10:16AM
    I have been with FD for over 20 years, and rate them highly. I switched to them after very bad experiences with both Barclays and TSB.

    Their online banking is not perfect but does everything I need. Their telephone service is exceptional - straight through to a real person who doesn't stick rigidly to a robotic script and is able to carry out virtually every banking request without referring to another department.

    I was once charged £40 by TSB for being £10 overdrawn for a couple of hours so FD's £250 0% overdraft facility is very handy when you have a little month left over at the end of the money!

    In 20+ years they have only made one mistake with my account when they failed to make my mortgage payment one month. When I phoned to sort it out they quickly admitted that it was human error on their part and would pay it themselves so I got a mortgage free month!

    A couple of years ago I phoned about a minor matter and was informed that, as a longstanding customer, I was due a loyalty reward. The following day a 12 bottle case of expensive red wine arrived on my doorstep! Gobsmacked would be something of an understatement.

    Their 6% regular savings account is the highest on the market but their other savings accounts are pretty dismal so I also have a 123 account which I use purely for savings. No experience of Santander's customer service but the website functions well and I have had no problems with the account so far.
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 346.6K Banking & Borrowing
  • 251.4K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 451.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 238.8K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 614.3K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 174.8K Life & Family
  • 252K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.